Soulrend Prologue and Act I: Levels, Controls and Your First Base

Prologue: the quests in order

The Prologue is the ungrouped chapter at the top of the quest book and holds 17 quests. There is no boss or structure; its job is to teach the interface and the core mechanics. The quest book is linear: you cannot complete a quest before the one it depends on. So the order below matters.

1. Welcome to Soulrend The root quest, with no prerequisites. Act I's first quest depends only on this one.
2. Epic Combat Explains the combat keys and gives 4 skill books; which skills they hold is explained below.
3. Leveling Up → The Skill Tree Tells you that levels fill through a damage threshold and that each level gives 1 skill + 1 attribute point (attribute points stop at level 180). The Skill Tree quest rewards an Amnesia Scroll. See levels and the skill tree.
4. Origin and Class → Looting and Pickup Mechanics Origin and Class gives an Orb of Origin to re-pick your race and class; the orb works only once. The Looting quest explains that dropped items are picked up with right click, and that crouching collects everything around you.
5. JEI Menu → New Quest UI · Questing · Upgrading Gear New Quest UI tells you that J opens the redesigned quest interface; in the pack's keybind file J is also the clear-notifications (Toast Control) key. Upgrading Gear asks for a Crafting Table and states an important rule: when you upgrade gear, gems, enchantments and affixes are not deleted; they carry over to the new piece.
6. Waystone · Warp Scroll · Warp Stone Each wants the matching item in your inventory. The Warp Stone teleports you to any waystone you have discovered, with a 5-minute cooldown.
7. Tom's Simple Storage → Item Vault The storage chain: after the Inventory Connector and Storage Terminal comes Item Vault, which asks for 36 of them. It does not open Act I; there is no hurry.

A few terms appear here for the first time: Orb of Origin (the orb that lets you re-pick race and class once), Waystone (the stops of the teleport network), Warp Stone (the stone that teleports you to a discovered waystone) and Warp Scroll (a teleport scroll).

Read the race and class restrictions before you use the Orb of Origin: Faded pairs only with the 12 mage classes, and Feral Beast only with Wildheart. Details: races and classes page.

The orb lets you re-pick your race and class. When you pick a new class with the orb, you also receive that class's starting kit.

Prologue rewards

Why Upgrading Gear matters

The pack's weapons and armor are upgraded by putting the previous piece into the recipe. That is why the Upgrading Gear rule is worth learning early: the gems you socket, the enchantments on the item and its affixes are not lost when you upgrade; they move to the new piece. So do not throw away a good affix you find in your first hours because "I will replace it anyway". The weapon paths (Pursuit of Mastery) and upgrade chains are on the combat and equipment page.

Epic Combat: keys and your first four skills

Combat is built on Epic Fight. The Epic Combat quest teaches four basic actions: Lock On (locking on to an enemy) on middle click, a Roll (an evasive roll) or a Step (a short evasive step) on Left Alt, and Guard (blocking an attack) on right click. The quest text says R toggles Combat Mode. The full key card, including the inventory, the quest interface and the skill tree, is on the getting-started page.

The quest's reward is 4 skill books: Parry, Guard, Soul-like Dodge and Step. According to the wiki a new player does not know Roll or Guard; if Left Alt or right click does nothing in your first minutes, use these books first.

Three rules about skill books

• Skill books do not drop from mobs; the pack cuts that drop chance by 100%. New skills come from crafting and quests (the pack adds 53 skill book recipes). The SkillBooks quest in Act I opens the Epic Fight chapter.
• The skills you have learned stay when you die.
• While holding a two-handed weapon, the off-hand item grants no dual-wield bonus. The item still stays in your off-hand; the essence bottle from Act II keeps working there.

Stamina, the parry window and posture are covered on the combat and equipment page.

Levels: a damage threshold, not XP

In Soulrend your level fills with the damage you deal to mobs; vanilla experience has no part in it. The Leveling Up quest says so in one sentence: to level up you have to pass a damage threshold. The interface tooltip shows progress as damage too: Progress X / Y damage.

Every level gives you 1 skill point; attribute points stop after level 180 (6 stats × 30 = 180). Levels 181 to 200 give skill points only. Skill points go into the skill tree, attribute points into the 6 stats. Your total skill points cap at 200.

The threshold is per level, not cumulative: each level asks for its own amount of damage, and each threshold is larger than the last. When you level up, damage beyond the threshold is not lost; it carries over to the next level. The first level needs only 50 damage; your first zombies will get you there. The final level (199→200) alone needs 50,000,000 damage, and all 200 levels add up to 668,446,815 damage. The examples below were computed from the pack's level code:

Track your own progress from the tooltip on the skill tree screen.

Damage that does not count

Filling your level efficiently

Because what counts is the damage actually taken off a mob's health, a simple conclusion follows: very strong single hits on very weak mobs add little to your level, because the excess is not credited. Long fights against mobs with high health give more progress. On the 33 bosses with a damage budget, only the damage the budget lets through is credited.

If you play with friends: damage is credited per hit to whoever dealt it. It does not matter who lands the kill: you keep what you dealt, and the finisher gets only their own share.

Your level sets the mobs' level

Mobs have levels too, and they take them from you: a newly spawned mob takes the Soulrend level of the nearest player, is averaged with the players within 60 blocks, and the result is kept between 1 and 200. As the level rises, the mob's health, damage and armor rise with it. You only see a mob's level when you look at it.

Some bosses are outside this rule: they either come with a fixed level or never drop below a set minimum (how to read a boss level). Inflating your raw level quickly is therefore not an advantage on its own; the ordinary mobs around you grow stronger with you.

Inferred from the game files.

The six stats: what each point gives

Attribute points are spread across six stats. The values come from the pack's stat configuration file and are per point:

Because the values are per point, you can work out the effect at the cap yourself. Putting 30 points into a stat gives, for example:

• Constitution: +30 max health
• Strength: +4.5 attack damage and +45% armor penetration
• Agility: +45% arrow damage
• Intelligence: +15% spell power and +30 max mana

Points add up: each point adds the same amount.

No file settles which stat suits which class, but the values point the way. Strength and Constitution are the natural start for a melee fighter, Agility for an archer, and Intelligence and Focus for a mage. Class bonuses are on the races and classes page.

Ranks come in this order: Novice, Initiate, Adept, Champion, Ascendant; their thresholds are levels 0-9, 10-24, 25-39, 40-59 and 60 and above.

The skill tree in brief

Passive Skill Tree (the passive tree you unlock with level points) opens with [O] or from its tab in the inventory. There are 985 nodes made for the pack: Warrior 164, Rogue 164, Ranger 164 and Mage 493. According to the wiki there is a single point pool, each node costs 1 point and the tree is not tied to your class, so a mage can take points from the Warrior tree too. Each tree has keystone selection limits.

Locked nodes

Some nodes stay shut even if you have points; they require you to have picked up an item once:

• 21 nodes (the core keystones and 6 Mage "Mind" nodes): pick up a Nether Crystal. You collect the crystal in Act II, for the seal.
• 54 nodes (18 subclass keystones and 36 Mage school keystones): pick up the Knight Sword dropped by the Underworld Knight. That happens in Act III.

The requirement is your own "picked up" statistic; dropping the item and picking it up yourself is enough (inferred from the game files). Where to find the crystal is on the Nether seal page. Do not try to save points for these nodes in your first hours; start with the open ones.

Resetting your points

Amnesia Scroll (the scroll that resets the skill tree) is the reward of The Skill Tree quest and resets the tree with no penalty; the points you spent come back. Wisdom Scroll (the scroll that grants +1 skill point) gives +1 skill point; it is the reward of each Sin boss in Act III, and the Bottom-Left and Bottom-Right shard quests in Act II give one each. So a mistake in your first allocation is cheap.

Tree details and keystone limits are on the combat and equipment page.

Act I - Awakening: setting up a base

Act I - Awakening has 15 quests. Its goal is to set up a base, gather your first gear and open the side chapters. Most quests are side paths; the mandatory route to Act II is only four quests:

1. Find a Place To Call Home A checkmark quest. Its reward is an Iron Pickaxe, Iron Axe and Iron Shovel; the rest of Act I branches from here.
2. New Faces, New Stories A checkmark quest. It gives two buttons leading to the Factions and The Overworld chapters.
3. minecraft:zombie Kill 3 zombies. The reward is 3 XP levels and a random Cracked Gem. Which zombies count is explained below.
4. Act II - First Steps A checkmark quest; the Move into Act II button in its reward opens Act II, and it also gives 5 XP levels.

Act I side quests

Four more quests open from Find a Place To Call Home. None of them is required for Act II, but the backpack and the compass make the first hours noticeably easier:

Because the Warp Stone only takes you to waystones you have discovered, picking a base near a waystone makes the trip home easier. Forging Your Path is less a quest than a crossroads: it gives buttons to the chapters described under side branches.

A suggested order for the first hour

Because the quest book opens many quests at once, it is easy to scatter in the first hour. The order below is a suggestion; only Act I's four-quest route is mandatory.

1. Tick Welcome to Soulrend and use the 4 skill books from Epic Combat.
2. Finish Leveling Up and The Skill Tree; keep the Amnesia Scroll.
3. If you are unhappy with your race and class, think about the Orb of Origin now, before you collect gear.
4. Get the iron tools from Find a Place To Call Home and set up a base near a waystone.
5. Make the backpack with 4 Leather + 1 String.
6. Tick New Faces, New Stories, then kill 3 ordinary zombies and move on to Act II.

The lock: three zombies

Act II's only gate is the kill quest in Act I. The quest has no title; the book shows it by its target's ID, minecraft:zombie. The target count is 3.

Because the quest book is linear, this quest does not progress until New Faces, New Stories is done. If your zombies are not counting, check that quest first. The same three zombies also bring your first levels: the damage you deal goes onto the level bar.

Side branches: chapters that open from Act I

Some Act I quests reward a "Move to …" button: clicking it takes you to another chapter of the quest book. These chapters are optional, but most of the pack's gear and magic progression lives there.

From the Forging Your Path crossroads

• Rise of the Champion (the quest chapter for the armor paths): armor progression. The quest text names four paths: Strength (max health, knockback resistance), Agility (crits and speed), Wisdom (attack damage and spell power) and Dragon (armor and toughness, at the cost of knockback resistance). The quest book lists it before the Acts, but it opens from here. Later quests mark the paths by color (for example "T3 Armor (red path)" in Act II). The quest text colour-codes the paths: red Strength, green Agility, blue Wisdom, pink Dragon.
• Enchanting Module: explains Apotheosis's enchanting system.
• The Ranger's Path → Archery Armory: bows and archer gear.
• The Arcane Path → Magic Academy and Magic Equipment: spells, spell books and mage gear. The first button is labeled "Magic Schools".
• SkillBooks → Epic Fight: new skill books.
• Epic Knights: its button does not seem to lead anywhere (see the box below).

From the other quests

• Your First Backpack! → Backpacks: backpack upgrades and tiers.
• New Faces, New Stories → Factions (earning citizenship by defeating a faction's soldiers) and The Overworld (structure exploration quests).
• After the zombies, A Stone Imbued with Magic → Reforging: affixes, gems and reforging tables.
• After the zombies, A Hunter's Beginning → Hunter's Journal: kill counters.

Which branch to start with

None of these chapters opens Act II; pick by play style. Based on the content in the files, roughly:

• Melee: SkillBooks → Epic Fight (new skills) and Rise of the Champion (armor).
• Mage: The Arcane Path → Magic Academy and Magic Equipment.
• Archer: The Ranger's Path → Archery Armory.
• Everyone: Backpacks (carrying space) and Reforging (affixes and gems). Reforging works with affixes; Upgrading Gear keeps them when you upgrade.

Before you start the Enchanting Module, know that the pack disables some enchantments (Mending and Unbreaking included); the list is on the combat and equipment page.

Checklist: Prologue and Act I

Your marks are stored in your browser and shared with the list on the series' getting-started page; a step you tick on one shows as ticked on the other.

Next step: Act II

If something looks different in your game, tell us through the contact page; this guide was prepared from the pack's files and is updated as the version changes.

Frequently asked questions

How do you level up in Soulrend?

By dealing damage to mobs. Your level fills with the damage you deal, not with XP; the threshold for the first level is 50 damage, and each threshold is larger than the last. Every level gives 1 skill point; attribute points come only up to level 180. Damage dealt to a target dummy does not count.

Why won't Act II open?

Act II depends on the minecraft:zombie quest in Act I: you need to kill 3 ordinary zombies. Husks and drowned do not count. The quest also does not progress until New Faces, New Stories is done.

How much string does the first backpack need?

1 string and 4 leather. The quest icon shows 4 string, but the quest book reads the amount from the task's count field, and the string task has none.

Why don't Roll and Guard work?

According to the wiki you do not know these skills at the start. Use the 4 skill books (Parry, Guard, Soul-like Dodge, Step) from the Epic Combat quest in the Prologue; skill books do not drop from mobs.

Can I reset my skill points?

Yes. The Amnesia Scroll from The Skill Tree quest resets the tree with no penalty. Locked nodes, however, stay shut until you pick up a Nether Crystal or the Knight Sword.

Can I move on to Act I without finishing the Prologue?

Yes. Act I's first quest depends only on Welcome to Soulrend. You can leave long Prologue quests such as Item Vault for later; do Epic Combat and The Skill Tree early, though.

How many times can I use the Orb of Origin?

Once. The Origin and Class quest gives you one. When you pick a new class with the orb, you also receive that class's starting kit. Read the Faded and Feral Beast restrictions before you use it.

This guide is unofficial and is not affiliated with the makers of the Soulrend v8.5.2 pack. The content was prepared by inspecting the files of the installed pack (Minecraft 1.20.1 · Forge). Minecraft © Mojang Studios; this page is not approved by or associated with Mojang Studios or Microsoft. The Soulrend pack belongs to Apotheotic_Studios; the mods and images in it belong to their respective authors; names are trademarks of their respective owners. Credits: credits.json. Textures used on this page: Bosses'Rises (Blockfactory, Unusual Squad), Nether Remastered (Jmods), Origins (Apace). If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, tell us through the contact page and it will be taken down.